The more you know

The more you know

A buddy of mine is an amateur race organizer. Mostly 5ks and fun runs. (He’s actually one of the reasons that I started my event medical services company!) Anyway, over a beer the other day, he was telling me about a free e-book that he downloaded on how to manage and plan races. “You know,” he said, “There’s an awful lot in there about how to attract runners and how to make sure they have a great experience, but not once does it mention anything about having medical on site.”

I took a sip of my beer and thought about it. “I guess they think that everybody should just know that they need to have a medical team on site.”

He looked at me. “I didn’t know I needed to have any medical on site for my first race.”

And there’s the problem. A lot of first-timers race organizers or club members who get pressed into the position of putting together a fun run have no idea why medical is important. When I talk to clients explain it like this, “We’re like buying flood insurance. Not very much fun. It’s not where you want to spend your money. But when the water is rising and all of your stuff is floating away, you sure are glad you bought that policy.”

Hiring a service like mine, ProEventMed, is cheap insurance for your next event. Having a fully equipped paramedic standing by at the finish line, or for longer races, having a team of paramedics on bikes or in a golf cart makes your participants feel more secure and provides you peace of mind.

As paramedics, we joke that we don’t want anyone to get hurt, but if they do, we want to be there! I sincerely hope you never have a serious medical incident at one of your events, but if you do, I sure hope you have me, or a service like mine, standing by and ready to go.